Tuesday, August 4, 2009

August 1 - Interview with CNTC leader in Colon

La Voz de los de Abajo Telephone Interview with the CNTC - Saturday, August 1

La Voz spoke with Obdulio Suazo, past Secretary General of the CNTC, and a leader in Movimiento Camepsino de Aguan (MCA) at the Guadalupe Carney community in Colon on the Atlantic Coast of Honduras. Obdulio spoke to us from Colon and said that the army has continued to pull back from its encirclement of the community and at this time they don’t feel like there is an immediate threat of repression. He reported that the week before, the army temporarily seized the national office of the CNTC m Tegucigalpa; 10 heavily armed soldiers questioned CNTC leadership and staff for over 2 hours in an attempt to intimidate the organization. This kind of repression hasn’t been seen since the 1980’s. Obdulio stated that the countryside remains militarized but the campesino organizations are also continuing to block highways in protest of the coup and to participate in the protests in the cities. In the border region with Nicaragua and in Tegucigalpa the repression is especially bad and the military has moved troops to the area near where Zelaya is encamped. He said that over the weekend 2 more bodies of Zelya supporters were found in El Paraiso, after being disappeared by the army. Anti-coup protests in Tegucigalpa have been attacked by the army and national police, hundreds were detained and one teacher was shot by the military on July 30 and died on August 1.